Words for Wednesday...

Pause and Give Thanks

Wherever you find yourself today,

Whether filled with joy or wrapped in pain,

Remember to pause a moment and give thanks

For no other event in our history and time,

Can change our lives like the birth of Christ – so Divine.

His love never failing, and His Presence always near

The greatest wonder in Heaven on Christmas did appear.

God’s gift full of grace that brings life, love, and hope,

Can be unwrapped by us all - changing life’s scope.

For when we invite His life into our hearts,

No love is greater than that He imparts.

So wherever you find yourself today,

Remember to pause and give thanks,

For He is the Truth and the Way!
© 2007 – Carolyn Lynn Schwartz

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Philippians 4:6

I wish everyone a safe and blessed Thanksgiving!

Love,

Jennifer

MMMMM Monday.......

This is a picture of my parents and the boys taken on Thanksgiving 2005(Michael's 1st)

I am gearing up for my yummy Thanksgiving "feast" .... I went to Trader Joe's today and got my turkey for this recipe and a few other things. I plan to finish the rest of my grocery shopping tomorrow.....I will be buying the ingredients for the pumpkin trifle that my friend Julie made this weekend. I will also be making this recipe that I got from my blogger friend Lisa. I will also make my Grandpa's stuffing recipe, mashed potatoes, peas, and broccoli cheese casserole. I love Thanksgiving, because I love to cook and entertain. We will celebrate the day with the four of us, my Dad, my brother, Carol(my mil), my Aunt Susie and???

I always keep an "open door" Thanksgiving..more the merrier :)

What are some of your favorite Thanksgiving recipes???

Pumpkin Trifle

Pudding:
2 (3-oz) pkgs, vanilla pudding
4 cups of cold milk
1 cup solid packed pumpkin
1 3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 frozen pound cake, thawed(not fresh)
Topping:
1 cup of fresh whipped cream
2 T powdered sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla`
1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/4 English Toffee bits
In large bowl with wire whisk, mix pudding, milk, pumpkin, and the 1 3/4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice until thickened; set aside. Cut cake into small square chunks. Line bottom of a 2 1/2 quart deep glass bowl with half of the cake slices, cutting to fit. Spoon half of the pumpkin mixture over cake. Arrange remaining cake slices on top of pumpkin mixture. Spoon remaining mixture over cake. Cover and chill for 4 hours to overnight(less is better).
To Serve:
Beat cream with powdered sugar, vanilla and 1/4 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice until soft peaks form. Spoon over top of trifle, spreading to edges; sprinkle toffee over top. Serves 12.

The Turkey

"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever."

Psalm 107:1 (NIV)

Jennifer

We had a good weekend....we had a light night on Friday, rented a couple of Wii games and hung out as a family. On Saturday morning Dave and Matthew picked up the Scout for Food bags. Then the boys and I headed to Matthew's friend Tyler's, bowling birthday party. We had a great time :)
After the party, Dave picked us up and we headed to our friends, Matt & Julie's house for dinner. Dave and Matt & Dan(Julie's brother) headed to the "man-cave". Apparently it is cigar shop where men just "hang-out"....They had a great time, relaxing and doing "boy-stuff"....While they were gone, Julie cut the boys hair(I will post pics) it looks soo cute! We are leaving it a little longer, and I love it! We had an awesome dinner, Lasagna, salad, bread and the best part... her Pumpkin Trifle, it was awesome. I planned to post the recipe, but I can't find my copy, so after I ask Julie tomorrow, I will post it. I plan to make it for my Thanksgiving here on Thursday!

Today, we celebrated our Church's 25th anniversary with a special two hour service at a local affiliated high school. Then afterwords we all (several hundred) stayed and enjoyed a wonderful luncheon prepared by our school's chef. It was a great time of worship and fellowship.

Then Dave came home to continue working on the house, while I dropped Matthew off at a birthday party, and Michael and I grabbed a muffie and a coffee, then ran a few errands.

Since we are still in "construction mode" here, after I picked Matthew up from his party, we picked up Dave and headed to Red Robin for dinner. Then stopped by Barnes and Noble to let the boys choose a book, because the school was having their book fair fundraiser day there.

Then we had baths, one Wii game of Sorry Sliders, and books and prayers.......

I had another blessed weekend with family and friends!

I have had a few requests for this recipe so here it is.....

Savory Crescent Chicken Squares

1 3-ounce package cream cheese softened

2 tablespoons butter, softened

2 cups of cooked chicken breast, cubed

1/4 tsp of salt

1/4 tsp o pepper

2 tbs milk

1 tbs of parsley

1 tbs of chopped onion

1 8-ounce package of refrigerated crescent rolls

Melted butter and bread crumbs

• Blend cream cheese and butter until smooth
• Add chicken, salt, pepper, milk, parsley, and onion.
• Separate crescent rolls into 4 rectangles. Seal perforations.
• Spoon chicken mixture into center of rectangle. Pull up 4 corners.
• Brush with melted butter. Place squares on baking sheet.
• Sprinkle with bread crumbs or crushed croutons.
• Bake at 350 for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.

*I always double this recipe to make 8.

*I also add a jar of drained pimentos

*Is awesome left-over

Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed

Proverbs 16:3

*It was 7 months ago yesterday that my Mom passed away....Hardly seems possible!

"Threes" Thursday...

I remember when my oldest Matthew turned 3, Dave and I said "Terrible Two's? It's a scam...the twos are a "breeze". Now the threes on the other hand......
So now here I am again with my Michael, who is my "spirtited" child. According to my Dad(who just laughs at me every time he is around), I am kind of getting paid back :) He also says that he wishes my Mom were here to see it....So do I, then I would have her wisdom and maybe more of her patience......Ha!
Here are some pictures from this week of my favorite three and a half year old!

Who, Me?
"Shooting" the painter working on the basement with a LOUD laser "gun"

He really is cute :)

A leaf, for Mom......

Your wish is my command........


And patience, experience; and experience, hope
Romans 5:4

This picture is one of my favorites....it was taken the day that Michael was born, when Matthew came to the hospital to meet him for the 1st time.

* I got the idea for this post from Gwendolyn's blog, you should visit her sometime....she is a great writer and her posts really make me laugh!

Tuesday "Trivia"....

I "stole" this idea from a fellow blogger Jen http://taleoftwocoins.blogspot.com/.
It looked like fun....
You should visit her blog sometime, she just recently lost her husband and her baby, and blogs about the tremendous amount of grief that she is experiencing. I find her to be a true inspiration and she could really use our prayers!
*Please take a minute to visit this blog and say a prayer for this family:
http://our-journey-to-parenthood.blogspot.com

they really need them........

8 TV Shows I Love to Watch:

1. Desperate Housewives
2. Brothers & Sisters
3. Extreme Home Makeover
4. Criminal Minds
5. Grey's Anatomy
6. Criminal Minds
7. How I Met your Mother
8. American Idol(I know)

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1. Stir Crazy
2. Cafe Provencal
3. Culvers
4. Red Robin
5. Pei Wei
6. DD's Pizza
7. Las Fuentes Mexican
8. Bear Creek Lodge

8 Things that Happened Today:
1. Had lunch at school with Matthew
2. Visited with Natalie, Jacob, Sophia & Liana
3. Picked up my 18 pies from school
4. Brought Delaney & Antonio home with us after school
5. Blogged
6. Went to Bev's jewlery party for Diane

7. Prayed for MANY people

8. Made savory crescent chicken squares for dinner(one of our favorites)

8 Things I Look Forward To:
1.Christmas morning with my boys!

2. Christmas break

3. Shopping day after Thanksgiving with Nat
4. Growing "old" with Dave and watchng my boys grow up....
5. Starting to work out again
6. Dinner next Friday with Vicki & Hunter
7. Baking christmas cookies
8. My 10 year anniversary in May

8 Things on My Wishlist:

1. Good health for me & my family

2. To have my Mom back(selfish, but true!)

3. Peace for our nation going forward
4. Cure for Cancer
5. A daughter someday......
6. For the house t0 be finished

7. NO major surgery for Matthew in the near future

8. A blog makeover!

Layla Teresa

This post is about giving the glory to God!

I am sure you remember these posts about Vanessa, Steve, Isabella & their precious baby girl Layla. Well Layla has been doing excellent and should be home before Christmas!!! This is amazing for a "26 weeker"! My friend Natalie is heading to Florida to see her this week.

I received this email from Vanessa yesterday, and wanted to share it with all of you.....

Thanks for your prayers!

You are all going to wonder what I am doing composing an email at 5am. Well I am in the bathroom at the Yacht Club in Disney pumping. But more than that God has been on my mind and in my heart about sending this email since 2am. I have to give God the glory and praise! First for seeing Layla through everything He has. I will probably never fully understand why Layla came as early as she did. But God gave me such peace the night I have delivered her and I knew then all would be okay. He told me this over and over through many different people. Some here in Tampa with me and others a whole state away. Some people haven't even met me personally yet. Today we came over to Orlando to do something special with Bella Girl. We know Layla will be home soon and things will just get crazier. Tonight at 7:58 I called the Nicu and a nurse I've never met before had Layla. The instant she answered the phone I knew to my core something was wrong with this person and she had no business taking care of Layla. First she was rude and extremely abrupt. Second she couldn't tell me anything about my daughter or her afternoon. The nurses give full detailed reports to each other at shift change & the nurse that had Layla today has had my girl from day one. I know Ida told this person what she needed to know. But more than that this lady just made my guts turn. Layla has had a rough 36 hours. Her blood count was very low and she just came off her caffiene so her O2 sat has been very erratic. Today for example she dropped to 18 and Ida had to give her oxygen to help her recover. I was nervous as it was to leave town. But as soon as I hung up the phone I knew that nurse needed to be removed. We called the charge nurse, Lisa, who was in the delivery room with me. She knows us by now. Knows I'm not an hysterical parent and took my concerns seriously. She changed Layla's nurse for me with no questions asked. But more than that, I knew, just knew in those moments that Satan was after my girl. The funny part, well not so funny, was at the exact moment to the second that I was talking to Lisa, Beth had God place Layla upon her heart and she was already praying for my girl too. It's funny because I had to send a text to Sandy to ask her to call Beth for prayer and I had no idea Beth was already praying. (had to do this thru text bc Bella was crying and trying to go to sleep) long story short the prayers are working. My girl has had a perfect night for the first time in two long nights. God has been so great and merciful in this time. My girl is sailing through the Nicu with her only problems being her immaturity. We have had to brain bleeds, no NEC, no eye problems, her hearing was tested and came back above average. She was evaulated last week for the need for physical therapy and my girl tested were she should be or above average for a preemie. God has indeed made her perfect. He gave Beth's pastor a message when Layla was first born. He said that she would not suffer from her prematurity or suffer delays in anyway in her life. God is fulfilling this before my very eyes. Miracles still happen!!! I've got one to prove it!! God's love is perfect, even when we don't understand why our life is taking the turn it is. I have been humbled through this. We have a few more weeks to go before Layla is home but she is most certainly coming home! I apologize for this being so long. But I had to share what God has done, what He is doing. Why my love and faith have been put through the fire these last years I feel it has really come full circle. I encourage you to hold fast to the promise's God has made. He loves you too and has a plan! It won't be what we have planned I have proof of that! :) but He is in control.

I love you very much!

Hugs!

Vanessa

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Joshua 1:9